Category: General

“I hate it when RSS scrapers steal my content” – Thord Daniel Hedengren

Yes – crediting the source is polite. I make a point of linking back and crediting, and expect the same those of you that find what I write interesting. That said, spammers are inherently rude. They don’t change their ways when asked politely.

If a publisher doesn’t want their publication re-published (w/ or w/o credit – the come together) then they shouldn’t be using RSS.

Or the internet.

Or anything that can be digitized and uploaded.

Or the publisher could put a block on any site they don’t want accessing their site, something in the .htaccess usually works pretty well.

Fun for the Comments: Re-state the quote above without using the blacklisted buzzwords.

It’s pushing midnight.

I’m reading Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine and listening to ‘Above the Law’ by N.W.A. and Limp Bizkit’s cover of ‘Faith’.

Here’s to tomorrow.

With apologies to all the godcasters, the “Nine Wives” episode of Numb3rs uses a religious leader’s podcast to track him down.

I can’t believe how many times I heard the word “podcast” used in bad dialog….and this is after I was baffled why they didn’t have an iPod in the Prius.

Crazy TV.

“We use words to helps us group people efficiently, but sometimes the grouping loses sight of the individual in the groups” – Liz Strauss

Eric Rice asks about the relationship between niche information and income levels.

At first glance, I don’t think there’s a relationship. Everything is niche. I trust people all along the income scale are looking for very relevant information. Though, it could be I live so far down the tail, that I doubt the existence of a head altogether. This is why I think a spatula is more accurate metaphor than a tail. The ‘head’ erodes.

Sure – interests in Second Life, golf, fine wine, yachting, NASCAR, or prices of milk at Wal-Mart may ebb and flow along the income scales, but I’m not sure how those topics aren’t niche. Just like the weather forecast in a given geographic location. Increased income may support greater levels of specialization of interest – and easier access to the specialized information.

From Eric’s later post makes me think the core of the issue he’s raising is one of media (perhaps specifically – internet) literacy. In that case, perhaps we could make a broad sweeping statement about a relationship between income and media literacy. Though my gut says that’s generational and temporary.

There’s huge value in learning to edit video, record audio, and publish it – in understanding how media can express an idea. Lots of us have been doing this for so long we can’t remember a time when we didn’t. ABCNews.com is introducing the participatory nature of this new world to a whole new group of folks. Newbies?

“In my experience, until the feature is done, it’s quite difficult to predict when it will be done…” – Johanna Rothman

“You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.” – The Superhero Personality Quiz

“The hope for my news goes like this: if there’s a war going on, it should be the top story every single day. It should be the top story until it stops, and even then some more afterwards.” – Ben Tesch

Last time I checked, I was subscribed to 350 RSS feeds. None of them from convention news sources. Those 350 feeds edit the New York Times, Washington Post, Star Tribune, etc, etc for me. Somewhere in those 350 are a handful of people I trust to bring me the things they think are important.

Sometimes those important things are originally published in “actual publications” and through the power of the hyperlink (a concept MSM doesn’t seem to get), I read the original story.

How the hell do I get through them all….I don’t. Right now, there’s 504 unread items. I’m fine ignoring them in the same way I’m fine ignoring the nightly news and not subscribing to cable or satellite television. Tomorrow there’s 504 different unread items. And the next day.

Ben’s got an excellent point. One I’ve been working on as well: relevance.

How the Vikings, Packers, or FC Bayern München does – doesn’t effect me directly. Nor celebrity breakups. Maybe Ben and I have that in common. Now, MN state legislation, US congressional legislation, and I-94 construction probably effects both of us directly. While I can easily _not_ subscribe to a sports or celebrity feed, it’s far more difficult to sort-by-relevance within my trusted sources.

If I wanted to have the war as a top story every single day, I subscribe to a bunch of war-related feeds (blogs and otherwise). Having the war be the top story for all of us everyday, is a completely different problem. Ben, which are you trying to answer?

While we all know what spam looks like, relevance is fickle.
“Threat Level Orange” might mean something to someone, but few of us can act meaningfully on that information.

I’ve got some ideas in this direction – and I will need your help to test it out. But, not ’til next year – we’ve got holiday cookies to eat.

“Always honor valid Visa cards, in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts is a violation.”

As always, thanks go to Consumerist.com.

The excuse I hear for this behavior is the credit card’s transaction costs (~3-5% of the transaction + a few pennies per transaction + a monthly clearing charge). As Jen reminded me the other day, cash has it’s own transaction costs (employees closing out drawers + transporting cash to bank + making change + slower check outs).